Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone have derided Malcolm Gladwell's contention that the effect of online networks on social change is greatly exaggerated, saying his argument is "laughable".

Williams, who stepped down as chief executive of the social networking site last week, said Gladwell's New Yorker article was "entertaining but kind of pointless", while Stone said it was "absurd" to think that social networks were not "complementary to activism".

The pair are the latest to launch a riposte to Gladwell's dismissal of social networks, after the article – subheaded "Why the revolution will not be tweeted" – began to make waves on Monday 4 October.

Williams said: "It was a very well-constructed argument but it was kind of laughable.

"Anyone who's claiming that sending a tweet by itself is activism, that's ludicrous — but no one's claiming that, at least no one that's credible. If you can't organise you can't activate. I thought [the article] was entertaining but kind of pointless."

In his argument, Gladwell cited the American civil rights movement of the late-fifties and sixties as an example of social change that was based on intimate friendship, suggesting that the "weak ties" connecting people online were not of the same influence.

"Enthusiasts for social media would no doubt have us believe that [Martin Luther] King's task in Birmingham, Alabama, would have been made infinitely easier had he been able to communicate with his followers through Facebook, and contented himself with tweets from a Birmingham jail," Gladwell argued.

"But [online] networks are messy: think of the ceaseless pattern of correction and revision, amendment and debate, that characterises Wikipedia. If Martin Luther King, Jr had tried to do a wiki-boycott in Montgomery, he would have been steamrollered by the white power structure.

"And of what use would a digital communication tool be in a town where 98% of the black community could be reached every Sunday morning at church? The things that King needed – discipline and strategy – were things that online social media cannot provide."

Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, said on Monday: "The real-time exchange of information — a service like Twitter — it would be absurd to think it's not complementary to activism. When it really comes down to it, it's not going to be technology that's going to be the agent of change. It's going to be people; it's going to be humanity."

The pair did, however, hold back from the kind of hyperbole heaped upon Twitter for its role in last year's Iranian election protests, saying that no one had intimated that 'the revolution will be tweeted'.

"It's always been our goal to reach the 'weakest signals' all over the world, such as the recent usage in Iran and Moldova," Williams said.